As flavouring agents

Benzaldehyde is an important intermediate for dyes (see malachite green) many other aldehydes (phenylacetaldehyde, vanillin, piperonal, citral, etc.) are used in perfumery or as flavouring agents. 

Lemon oil from Citrus limon), used as flavouring agent. 

Estragole is a natural constituent of a number of plants and their EOs have been widely used in foodstuffs as flavouring agents. Several studies have shown the hepatocarcinogenicity of EOs with estragole and its metabolites [372]. 

The extracts of plants that contain cyanogenic glycosides are used as flavouring agents in many pharmaceutical preparations. Amygdalin has been used in the treatment of cancer (HCN liberated in stomach kills malignant cells), and also as a cough suppressant in various preparations. 

Monoterpenes, 10-carbon-containing terpenoids, are composed of two isoprene units, and found abundantly in plants, e.g. (+)-limonene from lemon oil, and (—)-linalool from rose oil. Many monoterpenes are the constituents of plant volatile oils or essential oils. These compounds are particularly important as flavouring agents in pharmaceutical, confectionery and perfume products. However, a number of monoterpenes show various types of bioactivity and are used in medicinal preparations. For example, camphor is used in liniments against rheumatic pain, menthol is used in ointments and liniments as a remedy against itching, bitter-orange peel is used as an aromatic bitter tonic and as a remedy for poor appetite and thymol and carvacrol are used in bactericidal preparations. 

Several pyran-4-ones, e.g. maltol, are used as flavouring agents and 6-hydroxy-2,5,7, 8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid is a potent synthetic antioxidant (75MI22303). 

Chemicals that often smell fruity (for example, like pear drops) and may be used as flavouring agents for food, ethylene glycol... 

The use of coumarin, tonka bean, safrole, sassafras oil, dihydrosafrole, isosafrole, agaric acid, nitrobenzene, dulcamara, pennyroyal oil, oil of tansy, rue oil, birch tar oil, cade oil, volatile bitter almond oil containing hydrocyanic acid, and male fern as flavouring agents is prohibited. 

Table 1. Summary of the results of safety evaluations of aliphatic acyclic and alicyclic terpenoid tertiary alcohols and structurally related substances used as flavouring agents ... 

Consideration of combined intakes from use as flavouring agents... 

Table 2. Annual volumes of production of simple aliphatic and aromatic sulfides and thiols used as flavouring agents in Europe, the USA and Japan... 

Study in rats (Cox et al., 1974) provides adequate margins of safety (>3 million and 350 000, respectively) in relation to estimated levels of intake of these substances from their use as flavouring agents. 

For ethyl methyl disulfide (No. 1693), the NOEL of 7.3 mg/kg bw per day for the structurally related substance propyl disulfide (No. 566) from a 90-day study in rats (Posternak et al., 1969) provides an adequate margin of safety (>14 million) in relation to currently estimated levels of intake of this substance from use as a flavouring agent. This NOEL is also appropriate for the structurally related substances ethyl propyl disulfide (No. 1694), methyl isopentyl disulfide (No. 1696), amyl methyl disulfide (No. 1697), butyl ethyl disulfide (No. 1698) and diethyl disulfide (No. 1699), because they are all simple disulfides. For these structurally related substances, the NOEL of 7.3 mg/kg bw per day provides adequate margins of safety in the range of >14 million to >36 million in relation to the currently estimated intakes of these substances from use as flavouring agents. 

StepBS. Two substances, diisopentyl thiomalate (No. 1672) and propyl propane thiosulfonate (No. 1702), were evaluated at this step of the Procedure. The currently estimated daily per capita intakes of both substances are below 1.5 pg/person per day in Europe. Applying the criteria for Step B5 outlined in Annex 5 of the evaluations published after its forty-ninth meeting (Annex 1, reference 131), the Committee concluded that the use of these substances as flavouring agents at their currently estimated levels of intake poses no safety concern. 

Several substances in this group contain a sulfide group, which would be metabolized by S-oxidation. These include simple sulfides and sulfoxides for which S-oxidation would be the main route of metabolism (Nos 452 60, 507, 533,1683, 1684,1685 and 1707), acyclic sulfides with oxidized side-chains, which would have alternative processes of elimination (Nos 461-463, 465-481,495-503, 505,1297, 1298,1668,1677,1688-1692,1703 and 1710), and cyclic sulfides, some of which have additional functional groups, providing alternative processes of elimination (Nos 456, 464, 498, 499, 534, 543, 550, 563, 1296 and 1685). The majority of the combined intake of all compounds was from methyl sulfide (No. 452). The Committee concluded that under the current conditions of use as flavouring agents, the combined intake of these substances would not saturate S-oxidation and combined intakes would not raise safety concerns. 

Three of the seven flavouring agents (Nos 1717-1719) being evaluated at the current meeting have been reported to occur as natural components of food. They have been detected in coffee, mushrooms, pineapple, apple cider and port wine (Nijssen et al., 2006). Consumption ratios (the ratios of their consumption from natural food sources to their use as flavouring agents) were not calculated because no quantitative data were available. 

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